Detonate - by Geoff Tuff & Steven Goldbach (Hardcover)

About the Book

"This book explains how organizations built up bad habits, identifies which ones masquerade as "best practices," and suggests alternatives that can contribute to winning in the marketplace. With a focus on optimism and empowerment, it focuses on an approach and mindset which are critical to successfully compete in an era characterized by profound technological advances and uncertainty"--

Book Synopsis

Reinvent best practices that have become bad habits

Without meaning to, and often with the best of intentions, most organizations continually waste precious time and money on processes and activities that don't create value and no longer make sense in today's business environment. Until now, the relatively slow speed of marketplace evolution has allowed wasteful habits to continue without consequence. This reality is ending.

Detonate explains how organizations built up bad habits, identifies which ones masquerade as "best practices," and suggests alternatives that can contribute to winning in the marketplace. With a focus on optimism and empowerment, it focuses on an approach and mindset which are critical to successfully compete in an era characterized by profound technological advances and uncertainty.

- Core themes challenge how you think about and approach problems

- Case studies illustrate the challenges you face and how to overcome them

- Recommendations are pragmatic and steer clear of suggesting a brand-new, complicated wiring diagram

- Actionable advice provides the first steps down an evolutionary path

If you want to compete differently in today's marketplace and to challenge the things your company does which you have a nagging feeling are actually just a waste of time - and maybe value-destroying - Detonate gives you what you need to ignite change.

From the Back Cover

Every day companies delude themselves about what it really takes to survive. They follow orthodoxy and "best practice" without deeply thinking about why they do. For a long time, market conditions allowed this automatic, non-thinking choice to work without meaningful consequence. But this reality is shifting dramatically and accelerating at a speed that few are ready for.

Detonate is the counterintuitive book that challenges organizations to question the very things that create an illusion of stability. It reveals how bad habits form, provides recommendations on how to spot--and blow up--so-called "best practices," and suggests alternatives that will help you win. The authors explore the nature of change and why the future is unlikely to be governed by many lessons from the past, and provide practical advice for how to change: the book outlines four guiding principles and the seven specific "normal operating business procedures" that should be replaced with new practices.

After adopting a Detonate mindset you will be able to confidently call into question activities and ways of doing things that add no value to your organization. Detonate shows how to draw on lessons from today's successful companies that are competing effectively in the digital age, rather than lessons learned decades ago. You will have the ability to identify within your organization the right places to go and try new practices in a way that does not threaten the immediate operating performance of your core business. Detonate gives you and your organization a new, more fulfilling way of operating.

Filled with illustrative examples drawn from the authors' experience creating innovative approaches to winning for some of the world's largest and most successful companies, Detonate challenges you to blow up the outdated ideas and ways of doing business that are holding you back.

About the Author

GEOFF TUFF is a Principal with Deloitte. He is a senior leader of the firm's Innovation and Applied Design practices.

STEVEN GOLDBACH is a Principal with Deloitte. He is the Chief Strategy Officer of Deloitte US and a member of the firm's Executive Leadership Team.